The Essayist.

"UPWARD!"

A WORD FOR YOUNG MEN.

(4 New Year's Address to a Literary Society.)

LIFE is change. "Time flies" is a mere truism, but common place as it is, it indicates a fact regarding human existence which can never be ignored without detriment to the soul: for as time flies, life shortens, and the long perspective of youth and hope contracts as the years pass. Already the revolving moons have brought us once again to the threshold of a new year. How short have seemed the gliding months!-how quick the passage of the duty-freighted days!-how speedy the oncome of the season of Janus-faced reflectiveness! The Past-how marvellous have been the incidents of life and history, of emotion and thought, of aim and effort, crowded into its narrow-looking space-space which formerly appeared like an estuary opening on a wide, wide sea, but now impresses us as a confined embankment built with the masonry of time! The Present-how moment-short, how seemingly inadequate to endeavour or accomplishment-to the work that calls us and the duties that devolve upon us! The Future-how wide its farstretching vistas, how limitless-limitless as the covetousness of "young desire"-its forth-lying distances seem! and yet we know that, at any moment, the seal of death may be placed on the eyes that behold them with rapture, and look on them as their inheritance. Time's flight is an uncertain one, and its goal is unmarkable by the eye of man. We know, truly, whitherward it tends; and we can see, as the last footing it attains, the grave. But why should death conquer us on the levels of life, or lay us low in the valley-lands? Why should not our grave be like that of Moses on the mountain summits, with the Pisgah view of eternity clear in our eye? It was on Mount Moriah's top that Abraham fought the "good fight," which won him the title of "the father of the faithful." From the bare and splintered peaks of Sinai came down the law of life to man. On Carmel's heights the efficacious fervent prayer of Elijah brought rain to the thirst-spent inhabitants of Palestine. "An exceeding high mountain" was the scene of a wondrous temptation; a mount was the place of a marvellous death; and from the summit of a mountain the Greatest departed from the sight of men into the radiancy of His own eternity; in order that it might be true that, as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth, even for ever."

Such ideas have come, like a rushing flood, into my soul as I was seeking "a word in season" for the New Year's Address, which I have been now, as your President, privileged to deliver for three successive and, let me say it, also successful years. I have already bidden you go "Forward!" with brave and loyal hearts on the pathway of duty; "Forward!" in despite of innate fears or outward opposition; "Forward!" in the face of danger and difficulty; "Forward!" with all energy and might of spirit to dare and do whatsoever lies before you! I have already urged you "Onward!" though the heart should fail and the limbs become weakened; "Onward!" though daunting threats surround and causes of fear thicken in the air; "Onward!" though ambushed foes may lurk, or obstinate enemies may harass; "Onward!" though the soul wavers and faith shrinks; "Onward!" while Hope exhibits a shred of her heaven-blue banner, and life has a throb in the treasury of the heart. And what can I say more? What other word of might, of spirit-stirring potency, of energyarousing force, is left me? What can inject into the very centre of the soul a divine, life-nerving pith, capable of strengthening you to greater effort, increased ardour, or a forceful activity such as is not implied in these? There is surely no single vocable in England's language of supremer import than these-no concatenation of syllables invented in recorded time of mightier concernment and greater fulness of content! Forward! Onward! I can but reiterate the phrase and re-urge my message, until the enthusiasm of the expectant heart of each kindles into aspiration, and the spirit, all knit and concentred into a unit of might, resolves to use its faithfullest endeavours to go forward, to toil onward, and—ah! I have it now!-to struggle upward! Upward!-fit watchword for the living soul; for the appetant spirit, eager to rise to all the possible heights of its being and destiny.

"In life's rosy morning, in manhood's firm pride,
Let this be the motto your footsteps to guide,-
In storm or in sunshine, whatever assail,

We'll onward and upward, and never say fail!"

"Upward" is sinewy, alert, and daring; hardy, defiant, and intrepid: there is in it pith, resolve, and confronting nerve; enterprise, adventurousness, and chivalry. It admits the tendency of the heart to halt and hesitate, to seek ease and to delight itself in the haunts of frail-spirited luxury or effeminating indolency; but it is resistive of allurements, mettlesomely opposed to threatening dangers, and unappalled by difficulties. Upward" is springy and free-footed; the elasticity of the soul is vital in it; it indicates a sense of power, and suggests a compressed and unexhausted energy of mind; it speaks of former lowliness, of nobler efforts, of higher aspirations, of more strenuous endeavours; it implies a desire to leave the earth and near the sky; it expresses determination and an infelt potentiality of being, not yet used up in the exertions of the past, or expended 1868.

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in the toil of the forward and onward movements made. It stands in the face of the gorge-rent slopes, and looks with dauntless eye on the sky-cleaving upland heights; it sees the fissures and the chasms through which the rock-frettedt orrents hasten, without, despair or a blanching of the cheek, and it recognises the roughness of the way with a calm, soul-strengthening faith in the might of perseverance. It acknowledges that earth is not given as the place of human repose, and that life is not bestowed for indolent rest. It accepts, as a fact, that if we would see the sun rise early we must climb, and if we would catch the latest lingering of day we must stand upon the mountain-tops; that it is from the beetling headlands of the hills we see the most of earth, and gaze upon the largest stretches of the sky; and that while the valleys are darkening in the gloom of night,

"The mountain summits, sunlit still,

Look proudly into heaven."

It is on the mountain-tops that beacon-fires are lighted, and thither it is that the strong climber must make his way who desires to warn the low-lying dwellers in humble hamlets of approaching dangers. On the hill-heights the bonfires are set alight, that the outflush of their flames may regale the eye with tidings of gladness. On the upland summits cairns are built and landmarks are erected. Out in the wastes of the sea the up-jutting peaks of the rocky headlands are topped with lighthouses. The fire-cross flares, the flagstaff waves, the watch is set, and the outlook is kept on the stalwart bluffs or the towering steep, the lofty crag or the cloudcapped cliff. The tall steeple rings forth the bell-peal, the topmast bears the flying colours of heroes, and the banners are held aloft while contention reigns in the plains. On the tip-top tower of the castle hangs the insignia of greatness, on the crest of the mountain masses of the earth the very heavens seem to rest and turn, and it is from the cloud-piercing hills that the fertilizing rivers flow into the valleys; on them the benison is poured which fills the lands with plenty and men's homes with gladness. To be aspiring, then, to be persistently determined to pursue an upward course, is to be engaged in working out the greatness of being:

"For from the birth

Of mortal man, the sovereign Maker said,
That not in humble or in brief delight,
Not in the fading echoes of renown,

Power's purple robes, nor Pleasure's flowery lap,

The soul should find enjoyment; but from these,

Turning disdainful to a higher good,

Through all the ascent of things enlarge her view,
Till every bound at length should disappear,

And infinite perfection close the scene."

"Upward" is a word that indicates a spirit in its utterer superior to dalliance, indolence, and sloth. The Past has not exhausted the

pith of the soul; the Present, however filled with delight, can neither satisfy nor satiate it. Endeavour is not slackened by accomplishment, nor is effort paralyzed by the forth-look of fear; the heart is not subdued by the whispers of the syren voices of the senses, dulled by the pressure of sorrow, or flattered by the songs of self-esteem. It suggests a career and a future, power within and possibilities without. The eye is lit with life, the pulse is strong in its beat, the sense of fatigue is despised by the sinew, and the energy of the limb gains its force from the heroic impulses of the soul. When the inspiring activity of the entire being is suffused with the delicious enthusiasm which pants for nobler work and higher achievements, and the very central elements of your nature incite you to ardent aspirations, so that "Upward", lances itself forth from your stirred spirit, do not palter with the outflash of aspiration to which it has prompted, but

"Pray Heaven for firmness thy whole soul to bind
To this thy purpose-to begin, pursue,
With thoughts all fixed and feelings purely kind;
Strength to complete and with delight review,
And grace to give the praise where all is ever due.

Rouse to some work of high and holy love,
And thou an angel's happiness shalt know,—
Shalt bless the earth;-while in the world above,
The good begun by thee shall onward flow
In many a branching stream, and wider grow:
The seed that, in life's few and fleeting hours,
Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow,
Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers,

And yield thee fruits divine in heaven's immortal bowers."

In each of us let the swelling heart throb with the might of endeavour, tingle with the joy of noble aims, and feel the rapture of a high resolve. With cheerful magnanimity let us look upon all difficulties as tests of the strength that is in us, and the vanquishment of each obstruction in the path of our intents as another opportunity afforded us of reaching the genuine glory of our life. Let us "toil and be strong:" the toil of a master spirit wins the heroic wealth of worthiness. Man's unconquerable will was given him that he might, by its aid, climb to the highest summits of life's capacities, and raise himself to all the possible heights of being. The common levels of existence are fraught with temptations and influences which lull to listlessness. These we must avoid and overcome, and though we may never attain to the height to which ambition prompted us to aspire, the very effort itself is a manifestation of greatness. No one can ever rise who determines merely to do what he knows he can accomplish.

"Nothing that altogether dies

Suffices man's just destinies;

So should we live, that every hour
May die as dies the natural flower-
A self-reviving thing of power;
That every thought and every deed
May hold within itself the seed

Of future good and future meed!"

No halting cowardice, no self-seeking grudging for us, no holding back of our hand from working, or our heart from planning: let us determine and do. Upward, then! nerve the heart and strain the sinew, stir the spirit to effort, and strengthen the soul for exertion; fix the eye and the aim high, and toil to gain the top of life-the summits of endeavour. Let us lift the mind from the low and sordid delights of mere earthliness and sense; let us recognise, but not resign ourselves to them, and with our eyes on the Alps of achievement possible to us-heaven-high and inviting our ascentlet us desire and aspire. "Upward" is our New Year's word; let us be true to it,—say it, feel it, be it, do it, show it, tell it,—aye and aye upward :

"Go breathe it in the ear

Of all who doubt and fear,

And say to them, 'Be of good cheer!'"

“Upward” let our efforts be, and our soul's motto "Excelsior!"

THE CULTURE OF BEING.

A NEW YEAR'S ADDRESS.

A. K. H. B., in one of his essay-sermons, discourses pleasantly upon the growth of one's Being, its transitions, its difficulties, and its triumphs through the ordeal of existence; and observes that all can point to a certain period of their life, generally and appropriately the commencement of a new year, when the scattered threads of experience were first bound together and treasured as guides henceforward to a better and a happier phase of life's journey. Let us hope that many of the readers of the British Controversialist are entering upon this present new year with resolutions that shall in the future mark it indelibly as a new era in their being's growth. As befitting the occasion, it has occurred to us to present our readers with a brief résumé of our thoughts on the culture of being, and what should be its aim, method, and means; in the hope that, should we suggest no novelties in self-culture, we may at leastwhat is often much more beneficial-remind many of unchangeable precepts hitherto neglected or perhaps forgotten.